US hails Pak-India dialogue

New Delhi hosted bilateral talks with Pakistani officials this week. Both sides agreed to modest concessions on trade initiatives in Kashmir, a source of contention between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.Though both sides emerged with few concrete results, leaders from both countries said their relationship was moving in the right direction.Mark Toner, a spokesman for the US State Department, said during his regular briefing that Washington saw any contact between Islamabad and New Delhi as constructive.Always a positive step, always a productive or constructive in our view to see the two countries talking, he said. And its constructive for the region. Its constructive for both those countries.The talks followed a triple bombing in Mumbai that Indian officials said were meant to derail the talks. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in New Delhi the week after the July 19 attack, though Toner said Washington didnt have a role in the Indo-Pak talks.